Grace is Like...

My two dwarf spruces
 

I love my two dwarf spruces. They’re called dwarf but they will still grow about ten feet tall. I enjoy stooping over with my face slightly above the top of the tree and taking a deep breath to inhale the fragrance of Christmas. Christmas was always extra special when my father brought home a live Christmas tree. After all if Christmas was a celebration of a real Savior, it just made sense to have a real tree. I took the one on the left home about five years ago and planted him in this spot. He has grown taller and fuller. I purchased his little brother about a year later and put him in a pot by my front door. He was doing fine for the first year. Then I noticed some of his little green needles started turning brown. At the advice of a friend, I added a little organic fertilizer to the soil and kept a close eye on him.  

The winter came and left and spring had arrived. I purchased a bigger pot for my little tree and relocated him to his new home. Several weeks went by and the little guy’s brown needles became a gaping wound. I knew if I didn’t act quickly he might not make it through the summer. I took him out to where his big brother was planted, and after I dug a hole large enough for his roots to spread out, I put him in it and filled the hole with topsoil.  

I talked to him every day. I told him he was going to get bigger and stronger like his brother and that I couldn’t wait for the day when he was big enough for me to dress him up for Christmas. I could swear I saw the sadness in his little face disappear and as it faded away he smiled and his sagging brown branches seem to reach out towards me.

In the days that followed my “boy’s” health improved. I noticed new life springing up as light green needles started appearing throughout his withered little frame. I told him how proud I was to have him and that I was delighted that his health was improving. I knew it wouldn’t be long before his wounds were completely healed. Soon new branches would replace his dead limbs. I told him how sorry I was for putting him in a pot. I knew that it was only in freedom that he could truly be who he was created to be. That pot wasn’t a healthy home for him; in fact it had been a place of captivity. But I could tell my little spruce loved his new home. His big brother was right alongside him and the sun beamed upon him from sunrise to sunset. I made sure that he had an ample supply of water. He is so happy now that he is living in freedom. He is getting stronger and healthier with each day. Not only does my little spruce look and smell like Christmas, he also sings the “Hallelujah Chorus.” I just might have the only singing Christmas tree in the whole wide world! 

 

My little spruce back to health and living in freedom

God made his creation to work in harmony. The sun, soil and rain provide the environment for my two dwarf spruces to live in freedom. It all works by God’s grace. I got in the way of God’s grace by bringing my little tree into captivity, an environment that got him sick and would have killed him. But my little spruce taught me a lesson in freedom.  

Grace is like: Christmas & a live Christmas tree; Romeo & Juliet; Jack and Jill; David & Goliath;  Bonnie & Clyde; Batman & Robin; Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers; John, Paul, George and Ringo; Sonny & Cher; Simon & Garfunkel; Laurel & Hardy; Moe, Larry & Curly; Abbott & Costello; Spanky & Alfalfa; Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis; Cheech & Chong; Lucy & Charlie Brown; Dumb & Dumber; hamburgers & french fries; steak & mash potatoes; spaghetti & meatballs; fish & chips; peanut butter & jelly; salt & pepper; 

heaven & earth; Adam & Eve; God and man…